One of the fundamental rules of filing mandates you never read, scan, puruse, or otherwise allow yourself to be absorbed in what you are filing, nevermind the fact that you probably wouldn't have bothered to save something in the first place unless it was at least a little bit interesting. Such rules don't work because the people who make them up don't understand how a filing backlog can happen in the first place; their own files consist mostly of financial papers. It never occurs to them to keep a running file on a variety of interests, hobbies, ideas, and projects. These are people who don't appreciate the entertainment value of decyphering a faded receipt; neither do they see the point of keeping old magazines or catalogs. A performance review from a former job or postcards from a friend's 1995 trip to Mexico hold absolutely no interest for them.
If you happen to be one of these people, then you can follow conventional filing rules with great confidence, because Suze Orman or Julie Morgenstern can tell you exactly how long to keep your tax returns and that will be that. But the rest of us need to come up with filing stratgies of our own.
As I dealt with my Supreme Paper Mess , I was continually assailed by articles, newsletters, brochures, manuals, project lists, alumni magazines, product information, old cards and letters, and journal entries, among other things, whose interest value rivaled the Olympics. Many of these materials had landed in the To File pile that consisted of the floor of my study precisely because I had intended to go through them but hadn't found the time.
I didn't want to derail my efforts by settling down with a cup of coffee and a two year old copy of University of Pittsburgh's alumni magazine; neither did I have any intention of throwing it out before getting a chance to look through it. The compromise I made is one that has ended up working surprisingly well: I created a To Read folder. Whenever I have a few minutes, I pull an item or two out of the file and puruse to my hear's content.
I'll take a catalog or magazine to work to look through on my lunch hour. Most often when I'm done, I toss the whole thing; occassionally I'll clip a specific item or article. When I go home, I'll file the clipping in the appropriate folder.
I also like to choose a few things from my To Read folder in the early evening, after I come home from work but before I'm ready to do anything new. I'm not a big TV watcher, and it's nice to develop a routine for such transition times. Time spent in a waiting room, waiting to pick the kids up from an activity or from school, commute time via train, or before-bed reading time are possibilities that might work for other people.